Uncle Silas eBook

When we went out for our walk, if the weather were
bad we generally made our promenade up and down the
broad terrace in front of the windows. Sullen
and malign at times she used to look, and as suddenly
she would pat me on the shoulder caressingly, and
smile with a grotesque benignity, asking tenderly,
‘Are you fatigue, ma chere?’ or ‘Are
you cold-a, dear Maud?’

At first these abrupt transitions puzzled me, sometimes
half frightened me, savouring, I fancied, of insanity.
The key, however, was accidentally supplied, and I
found that these accesses of demonstrative affection
were sure to supervene whenever my father’s
face was visible through the library windows.

I did not know well what to make of this woman, whom
I feared with a vein of superstitious dread.
I hated being alone with her after dusk in the school-room.
She would sometimes sit for half an hour at a time,
with her wide mouth drawn down at the corners, and
a scowl, looking into the fire. If she saw me
looking at her, she would change all this on the instant,
affect a sort of languor, and lean her head upon her
hand, and ultimately have recourse to her Bible.
But I fancied she did not read, but pursued her own
dark ruminations, for I observed that the open book
might often lie for half an hour or more under her
eyes and yet the leaf never turned.

I should have been glad to be assured that she prayed
when on her knees, or read when that book was before
her; I should have felt that she was more canny and
human. As it was, those external pieties made
a suspicion of a hollow contrast with realities that
helped to scare me; yet it was but a suspicion—­I
could not be certain.

Our rector and the curate, with whom she was very
gracious, and anxious about my collects and catechism,
had an exalted opinion of her. In public places
her affection for me was always demonstrative.

In like manner she contrived conferences with my father.
She was always making excuses to consult him about
my reading, and to confide in him her sufferings,
as I learned, from my contumacy and temper. The
fact is, I was altogether quiet and submissive.
But I think she had a wish to reduce me to a state
of the most abject bondage. She had designs of
domination and subversion regarding the entire household,
I now believe, worthy of the evil spirit I sometimes
fancied her.

My father beckoned me into the study one day, and
said he—­

’You ought not to give poor Madame so much pain.
She is one of the few persons who take an interest
in you; why should she have so often to complain of
your ill-temper and disobedience?—­why should
she be compelled to ask my permission to punish you?
Don’t be afraid, I won’t concede that.
But in so kind a person it argues much. Affection
I can’t command—­respect and obedience
I may—­and I insist on your rendering both
to Madame.’

‘But sir,’ I said, roused into courage
by the gross injustice of the charge, ’I have
always done exactly as she bid me, and never said one
disrespectful word to Madame.’